NBA: Mavs Regret the Kidd Deal?

The
chances are you've had this conversation. I've certainly had it more
than a dozen times, both on radio and TV shows as well as with friends
in Dallas who love the Mavericks. As we watch Devin Harris go out and
score 47 points against Phoenix and hit the 30-point mark more often
than not, people want to know what the Mavericks were smoking when they
traded him for the "old and tired" Jason Kidd.

As well as Harris is playing, and he's certainly on track to be an
All-Star and possibly this year's Most Improved Player, we have to stop
and think about what kind of team the Mavericks are and what kind of
team the New Jersey Nets are. There are few similarities, and to a man the Mavs feel Kidd is the better player for their team and their system.

"I think it's a win-win for both teams," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
told HOOPSWORLD. "Devin's having a great season, we're proud of him,
but he's not going to have the ball in his hands every single time if
he's here. They're a two-man team and they dominate the ball. That
wasn't going to happen here. We needed a guy to distribute the ball,
provide leadership, and that's what we got. Would I do the deal again?
Yep."

"All situations are different," adds veteran swingman Jerry
Stackhouse. "If Devin had never been traded, who's to say that he would
be able to play the same style that he's playing right now and playing
as loose and as confident as he's playing right now. They have some
different pieces around him, too. They have some spot-up guys around
him. There aren't a lot of guys who stand in the post and demand the
ball and get in his way. There are other teams that could give him the
ball and tell him to do his thing and he wouldn't be as successful as
he has been because of the personnel. Personnel has a lot to do with
it. Here we're going to get the ball to Dirk a huge percentage of the
time and I don't think the Nets have another guy who they're looking to
just run the ball through, Vince Carter included."

"Devin's playing well, which is good for him, but you can't live in
the past," says Dirk Nowitzki. "I love playing with Jason Kidd. He's
been great around here, not only on the court but off the court he's
been great. We're comfortable playing with him and we just have to move
on."

Overwhelmingly, the feeling among Mavericks who played with Devin is
that he wouldn't have become the player he is for the Nets if he hadn't
been traded to a team where he could dominate the ball.

"You've got to be on a team where you dominate the ball," says
Cuban. "That's what Devin does best. Clear out and let Devin go.
They're not giving it to Yi Jianlian. They're not giving it to Lopez.
They're not giving it to Bobby Simmons,
who just stands in the corner. One time they give it to Devin, one time
they give it to Vince. That's perfect for them, that's the way they
designed their offense. It's kind of like when Michael Finley first got
here. We just gave it to Fin. He went from a guy who was just a slasher
to an All-Star. That's just who he was."

"Devin's playing well, but you have to attribute that to the system
he's in," agrees Terry. "He doesn't have the team that we have over
here. We have a lot of talent and sometimes you have to defer to other
guys. He's being able to shine in a system where he's the focal point.
Over here, obviously, he wouldn't be. He's maybe the third or fourth
option over here. We're happy that he's doing well, but at the same
time you never know if he'd be as effective here."

Harris couldn't agree more, and told HOOPSWORLD that he feels he can
be more aggressive with his team in New Jersey than he could ever have
been with the Mavericks.

"Dallas has a very balanced type of scoring in that they've got
their top two guys in Dirk and Josh, and that third scorer then kind of
varies. Jet's played well this year because J-Kidd's a little bit more
of a distributor, but I agree that I wouldn't have had the same shot to
be as aggressive as I have been here. They need me to score here, but
there those guys need to score, and they need to get the ball."

"Devin wouldn't be doing what he's doing in this structure,"
explains Cuban. "Devin would be asked to create plays to open up room
for Dirk. That's not Devin. when he was a one-man fastbreak for us he
was phenomenal. That's just a different structure. It's kind of like
when Steve Nash left here. Nellie was talking about how Nash wouldn't
last and he was cutting his minutes, he goes to a system designed for
him and he's an MVP. I hope Devin gets the MVP. He's the type of kid
that's great for the NBA, but we have an MVP here. That's the difference."

Nowitzki even went so far as to suggest that perhaps former coach
Avery Johnson was holding Harris back. It's an interesting point,
especially for those of us who saw Avery night after night trying to
mold and shape his young point guard.

"Maybe it's good for him to get away from Avery for a little bit,"
says the Mavs' MVP. "He was looking over his shoulder constantly and it
just seems like he's playing free in New Jersey. He doesn't have to
worry about anything, he's just playing his game. Maybe that change was
good for him. I'm happy for him. He's playing well. He was a great kid
from the beginning and we all knew he was going to be a good point
guard in this league. I just think Jason fits a little better in what
we're trying to do."

Jason Terry
was very close to Johnson, and as a point guard he had more of Avery's
undivided attention than the rest of the squad. He disagrees with
Dirk's assertion that perhaps their former coach was limiting Harris'
development.

"I don't think Avery overmanaged us; I think he coached to his
team," says Terry. "He coached to the players that he had. When you're
a point guard and then you're a coach who played the position, you're
going to put extra emphasis on coaching and teaching that position. He
did a great job for me, coming from Atlanta, being a scoring guard, he
taught me to manage the game. Even though I'm at the two now I'm still
out there thinking like Avery would be thinking. I know he helped JJ
(Barea) and he helped Devin Harris, as you see by the way he's leading
that New Jersey team."

"We all knew Devin was extremely talented and it was just a matter
of time before he blossomed into the player that he's playing like
right now," adds Stackhouse. "It's just that he had growing pains in
getting there and unfortunately we experienced some of those growing
pains last season. Our team was constructed, at the time, as a team
that was built to win right now. There was just a moment there where
everybody felt that we had to do something. When you've got Jason Kidd
being dangled out there, a guy who's a proven winner, who's been to the
Finals, and maybe didn't have the best supporting cast - you tend to
think that he might be the missing piece. You had to wonder how much
longer Devin was going to have those growing pains. I think he's
proving that his learning curve was almost at the end and now he's
showing that he's an extremely gifted and talented player."

The answer to the question of whether or not the Dallas Mavericks
regret the trade that brought Jason Kidd to town in exchange for Devin
Harris, then, is an emphatic "no." They recognized Harris' potential,
but they also knew they needed more of a set-up man to instigate their
offense. Jason Kidd is filling that void for Dallas, just as Harris
filling a much bigger void on both ends of the floor for the New Jersey
Nets.

It seems this trade is truly working out for both teams, with no regrets on either side.